London: best way to beat the East Coast heat

I got a call on a Wednesday that I would be needed in London the following Monday for a few weeks – was I available? Heck yes! It was for a bit of a role transition, which I anticipated and looked forward to in about October time, but it got pushed up a bit (hooray!) Plus, I was just about ready to start planning some sort of summer vacation, so this was an excellent jumping off point to Europe (more on that later...)

I was put up in a apartment/hotel this time around, complete with a stove, fridge, washing machine (!!) I already love the city, but this was a huge help in making me feel at home in London. Admittedly, I didn't do much cooking, but it was nice to have the option.

Digs for most of my trip

I've done a lot of the touristy things in London, so I took the weekends pretty easy. Wandering around the neighborhood, South Bank, sitting in parks and squares reading. I did get funky in Camden Market. Well, the funk was all around, at least.

Camden Lock

I had gorgeous weekends, and really nice weather all around. I've said this many times to many people, but it was nice to be in a place where the high temperature (mid-70s to 80) was NY's low temperature. Can't say I really missed not being in NY for one of, if not the, hottest Julys on record.

Probably the most asked question: isn't London so rainy?!

My time in London was really nice. I had a lot of pubtime with my workmates, caught dinner with friends in London, and I got to meet some family for the first time. Stuart and his family were gracious enough to have me over for dinner. We worked out that we're second cousins on my mother's side (my great Aunt Jane's grandson). It was really nice to meet them – they're lovely, and I'm excited to meet child #3 after she arrives in September.

Thanks for having me, cousin Stuart!

Land of Sweet Tea

I spent Memorial Day weekend visiting my friend Ashley from Penn State down in Elizabeth City, NC. I took a bus down to Baltimore and spent the night at my friends' place before we hit the road on Friday.

We had a raucous dinner at Applebee's on Friday night, followed by catching up with everyone afterwards. We spent Saturday running around getting ready for the big party that night. The party was a ton of fun - good food, dancing, and meeting the new people in Ashley's E-City life.

PSU and Virginia friends with the birthday girl and her boyfriend Justin

Hammer and Vanilla chilling out after the party

We went down to the Outer Banks on Sunday for a few hours. The beach at Nags Head was really pretty and wasn't overly crowded (though it was tough to find parking). The water was cold, but we all jumped waves for awhile on a perfect beach day. After that, we said goodbye to Sara (back to Tucson) and Laura (staying for a few extra days in OBX).

Steve, Laura, Me, Ashley, Sara, Matt after some good beach time

Matt and Steve and I took back off to Baltimore on Monday. We stopped in Williamsburg, VA to wander for an hour and grab some lunch. It wasn't quite what I was expecting - I thought lots and lots of cobblestones - but it was neat nonetheless.

Governors Palace

Sitting in traffic outside Richmond, we spotted a black lab puppy without a collar sitting on the side of the road. Steve jumped out of the car and picked her up. We shared the backseat back to Baltimore where she got a vet check-up, 14 ticks removed, and scanned for a microchip. No microchip, and efforts to find an owner didn't turn up anything. Matt and Steve found Virginia a new home with several other labs.

Virginia the navigator

Thanks to Mama and Papa Sweeney for hosting a great weekend, and having a fabulous daughter to bring us all together.

Bienvenido a Miami

I spent a few days in Miami last week for work. The days were spent in a conference room, but the evenings were spent eating delicious food and imbibing a few adult beverages.

On Friday, I took off to South Beach to spend an extra day and a half on the beach. I met up with my friend Joanna from Penn State, and her friend from home, Erin. We went to dinner at Joe's Stone Crab for dinner. Tasty stone crab (my first), fried green tomatoes, and key lime pie. Oh, and Bill Clinton was there.



I spent Saturday on the beach, and wandering around South Beach. I got some sun, and came home with some awkward tan lines, and a further appreciation of Miami.

Now I'm in NY

I moved into Manhattan at the beginning of April, and I've been busy working and doing some exploring - time for an update!

I'm in a 3-BR on the Upper West Side near Lincoln Center. I share with 3 cool roommates, and 2 happy, furry, tail-wagging roommates.

View from the balcony

View from my bedroom (!)

I live very close to Riverside Park, and I've gone running there a few times now. It's a nice path; there's a boardwalk for a bit, along the river, and some neat sights (including the 69th Street Transfer Bridge)

And, I'll leave you with a shot of the flowers in bloom from a few weeks ago. Somewhat relatedly, I went to the farmers market yesterday, and saw lilacs for sale from $5-$7 a bunch. I find this absolutely hilarious, because I could make $100 if I went back to where I grew up and raided the lilac bushes.

Iceland

I spent 4 days in Iceland with my department for a team meeting. A lot of time was spent in a stuffy conference room, but we did get a fair amount of time to explore.

We flew in Sunday night, arriving early Monday morning. Reykjavik is at 64°N, so the sun didn't rise until about 930 while we were there. I didn't get much sleep on the plane, so I took a nap and headed out for a hot dog at noon. Iceland uses GMT, so it's the same time as London (+5 from EST).

Apparently this means "town's best" in Icelandic. The lamb hot dog was pretty tasty, with its mysterious brown sauce and crunchy bits

After an Icelandic Viking beer with some NJ colleagues, I wandered around Reykjavik to get a feel for the small city and take in the scenery. 2/3 of Iceland's population of 300,000 live in the city.






One of the highlights of the trip was the food and drink. I ate a lot of seafood while I was there. Cod, halibut, salmon, and some lobster soup were more of the traditional seafood, but I also had smoked puffin, minke whale, and a black seabird. I had opportunity to have reindeer (already had it in Alaska), foal (was gone before I got a chance to try), and fermented shark, but I passed on the shark. The colleagues who tried that one gave reviews of bad sushi and urine.

On Wednesday, after a morning of meetings, we drove about 40 mins south of the city to have an ATV adventure along the coast. We paired up on quads and drove around for about 2 hours. I opted to be passenger the entire time. I was having a blast on the back of the quad - we maxed out at 55 mph. It also gave me time to take in the alien landscape - no trees, all black lava rocks.





On the way back to the airport, we hit the Blue Lagoon, a thermal bath. The water is a really pretty blue color, heated by the outflow of the geothermal power plant - way cooler than it sounds.



I would very much like to get back to Iceland to see the rest of the country - glaciers, hiking, etc. I'm so glad I got an opportunity to see it - and seeing it in the winter wasn't bad at all.

Chicago. For a day.

Not much to say about Chicago, because I was on the ground for less than a day. I stayed near the shopping district - do natives really say Magnificent Mile? I don't know if it's like a NYer saying Ave of the Americas.

Hotel room view by night and day. Foggy.

In any case, I ate deep dish pizza and drank a Fat Tire at Pizano's. Fat Tire was delicious, and the pizza was... well, it was a lot. Even a little personal sized one. Too much sauce, too much bread, and, dare I say it, too much cheese. I'll stick to my greasy NY/NJ slice, thanks.

I did my client training in the morning, and headed back to the airport after that. In and out in less than 24 hours, but I got a good vibe from the short time I was in the city. I'll be back, Chicago.

Sea fog, the Gulf, and the Menagerie

I took my first-ever trip to the Gulf coast of Florida. My bff Julie was down from Alaska for a conference, and made a stop in Florida to visit her sister and brother-in-law, Val and Keith. I crashed their party and hung out down there for a few days.

It was cloudy or foggy for the most part, but that didn't stop the relaxation or beach time.  Julie and I got in round about the same time on Thursday.  We got lunch at a restaurant where the average age was about 70 (helloooooooooo Florida!)  This was followed by meeting the menagerie at Val and Keith's: 2 pretty cool cats, Psycho and Tigger, plus Sammy the mellow, hungry beagle.  And then there's Honey Bear, the always-happy, obsessive-compulsive bull terrier.  If anyone met my dog Maxine, let's just say she demanded more attention than Maxine did.  She was entertaining to have around though.

We headed to Venice (median age: 68) to sit on the beach.  The weather didn't quite cooperate, as the sea fog we expected to burn off never did.  After sitting on the beach in our sweaters and towels wrapped around us, we got some drinks and later dinner at Sharky's on the Pier.  Mmm tropical drinks and gulf shrimp.

Julie and the foggy pier, Friday at Venice beach

Roomies for life

We headed south to Gasparilla Island on Saturday.  It was cloudy when we got there, but the clouds rolled out and the sea breeze felt nice to cool down the 80° and sun.  I think I've finally learned my sunscreen lesson though - even if it's cloudy, and January, you can still come back to NJ looking like a lobster.

Julie and Val, Gasparilla Island

We had early flights out on Sunday, so Saturday night was spent eating leftovers and bumming out.  Thanks again to Val and Keith for letting me stay with you, and for the chauffeur services!  The rest of the pictures are available here.

Real, live citrus growing on Val and Keith's neighbors' trees.  Hey, I'm from the northeast, let me marvel at this.